


Eternal Shipwreck of our Hopes

by DrSteggy



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Post-Calamity Ganon, Regret, Soul-Searching, Vah Naboris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28158393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrSteggy/pseuds/DrSteggy
Summary: Urbosa has a lot of time to think in the dark of Vah Naboris
Relationships: Link & Urbosa (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 27
Collections: LoZ Writers' New Year Exchange 2021





	Eternal Shipwreck of our Hopes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cyraclove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyraclove/gifts).



> I hope you like this, cyraclove.

She had lost track of the days and years. Time didn’t matter anyway, not anymore. It was just an endless stream in the dark and quiet of Vah Naboris. The Beast sat in a forgotten corner of the Gerudo desert, a shipwreck on the sand. And her tomb. Silent, forgotten, the world had moved on while her spirit was trapped inside the ancient machine she had once had the privilege to pilot.

Cold. Quiet. Urbosa had a lot of time to think.

_ “How are you two getting along, anyway?” _

_ His shoulders slumped ever so slightly, and he closed his eyes for a moment before resuming his stoic posture. “As well as ever,” his tones were neutral, but his slip had told her volumes. _

_ “Link,” she cocked her head and softened her voice. “You can talk to me. There’s no need to carry this alone.” _

_ He kept his parade rest stance, a flicker of stormy emotion in his eyes there and gone. He sighed and dropped his eyes to the ground.  _

_ “I am pretty sure she hates me. She has made it clear I am not welcome and she is only tolerating me because of her father.” _

There had been a century to look back on the Calamity, to analyze in detail where they had gone wrong. She had spent almost every minute reviewing their missteps, and obsessing over what they should have done instead. They had no idea what they had been up against, even if they believed they did.  _ No idea. _ The Beasts had been victorious ten thousand years earlier, why wouldn’t they be so again? They were destined to succeed. Obviously.

They had all forgotten that Ganon had learned from that loss, while they were working with scraps they didn’t completely understand. He had ten thousand years to plan, while they struggled with the ancient machinery. 

It had seemed like they had learned so much. Robbie and Purah constantly had something new to share, some insight, and there had been moments where their victory had seemed ordained. The day Revali had figured out how to work the weapons on Vah Medoh- having that giant fortress in the sky surely meant they were unbeatable. Even if Revali had been more insufferable than usual for a week afterwards.

All that work to be ended so quickly--all five Champions’ lives ended before they could even play their roles. Link had lasted the longest, but he had been the only one of them actively favored by the goddesses, and in the end, he had fallen in the mud and died, too.

And Zelda.

_ Zelda. _

She felt a tug deep in her chest, followed by bone deep sorrow, when she thought of how they failed Zelda. She closed her eyes and sighed.

_ “Lady Urbosa, I need to talk to you.It is about the princess.” he must feel comfortable with her now, because he is openly agitated, tensing and releasing fingers though his hands remain at his side. “I need a way to stay in Gerudo Town.” _

_ “Link,” _

_ He interrupts her, and she allows him. He is so quiet typically. The outburst is slightly shocking. _

_ “I need a way to stay in Gerudo Town.” It's not a request. “The princess is exploiting the rules that keep me outside to evade me. She has gone out exploring at least twice without my knowing. I’m supposed to protect her, Urbosa, and she won’t let me.”  _

_ His demeanor shifts and for a moment he wears his worry like a cloak. This does not seem to be as simple as an assignment suddenly, and she cocks her head at him.  _

_ “All I want to do is protect her,” he pleads. “Please help me stay in Gerudo Town. You can do that.” _

_ “I can.” _

_ She did. _

Zelda, who had never been allowed a moment to find out who she might be. Zelda, who had not even been allowed to properly grieve the loss of her mother. Zelda had barely been old enough to understand death, had been stuffed into a white ceremonial dress and pressured by her father to start trying to unlock her powers, instead of being given time and space to grieve. And she had tried. If intent and desire were all that were needed, she would have found her magic before she hit puberty. Instead, all she had done was spend her life trying and failing, turning bitter and angry. 

Urbosa would never forgive King Rhoam for what he had done to his daughter, treating her like an object to serve and not as the child she had been. He could excuse it as being for the good of the kingdom all he wanted. In the end, the kingdom had fallen, anyway.

_ Lady Urbosa,  _

_ It pains me to write this letter to you, and I wish I were reaching out to you under better circumstances. I am grieved to report the death of the queen. I know you were close to her... _

Urbosa had never cared for Rhoam. She liked to think that her best friend had married the slob for Hyrulean political reasons Urbosa did not understand, but it seemed that she genuinely  _ liked _ him.

Urbosa wondered how her friend would have felt about Rhoam pushing his seven year old daughter so hard to achieve her destiny that the child passed out in freezing cold water, leaving her with a fever for several days. Urbosa did not like to think about what might have happened if she hadn’t found Zelda in that spring that day. The idea still made her dig noncorporeal fingers into the railings on Vah Naboris, and grit her teeth, anger flaring in her.  _ How dare he. _

Zelda had, finally, unlocked her powers, throwing herself in front of Link as he was dying on his feet, blocking the Guardian Stalker running them down. She had screamed in frustration and the Guardians died and Link collapsed, because it wasn’t enough that her father, her people, and her Champions had died on her watch, her appointed knight-and whatever else he had been to her-had to, as well.

And now? Zelda was apparently locked in her own beast, though that seemed to be Hyrule Castle, containing the Calamity on her own.

How long could she do that? What was she enduring? Had there been a blight waiting for her at the castle?

Or worse?

Urbosa had gotten a surprise when she boarded Naboris the day the Calamity struck. She had just gotten the Beast through its start up sequence when she heard a sound behind her, metal on stone. The warrior in her had been ready, but the blight had been so fast, and so unrelenting. She barely had time to raise a shield before it brought its blade down, and she only got every fourth strike in on it as the other three went to take out the glowing blue shield it carried. And then it would be gone in a blur, and back, but behind her. She was only a little slow once, just once, but once was enough for the blight to open her throat. 

It was only as she lay on the cold floor of Naboris, in a growing pool of her own blood that she sent out a weak distress call, knowing it was already too late for her, wondering if a similar trap had been waiting for the rest of them and she was so tired, she’d just close her eyes for a minute, just a minute. 

She wasn’t sure how long it was before she woke up? Came to? Did it matter? The inner chamber of Naboris was at a drunken angle, its power off. The beast was down in the sand, legs folded under it, neck stretched out on the ground. Dead in some far flung corner of the Gerudo desert. She was alone. Well, except for the puddles of malice present, with their baleful yellow eyes watching her. Did it report directly to the Calamity, she wondered, or did it just quietly observe and react to what was around it?

Hoping for the former, she spent more time than was probably healthy cursing the Calamity directly in front of those eyes. The malice only stared back, silent, occasionally blinking, offering nothing.

Weeks bled into months, into years, into decades. The malice still blinked silently and Urbosa counted her missteps.  _ I’m so sorry, little bird. _

She stared out one clear night on the desert from one of the humps on Naboris’s back (she often wondered what purpose the humps might serve on a real animal) when a change shivered over her former charge. The silent beast hummed and powered up, its various lights a poisonous pink instead of the cool blue she remembered. The head slowly rose from its place in the sand. Naboris sat, half alive and Urbosa darted her gaze to one of the baleful yellow eyes in the malice draping itself inside a hump. It still offered nothing. It was clearly receiving a command, though it sat unchanged.

Urbosa drew a breath, wondering if she would have to refight the blight. She had no idea where her scimitar may have ended up. Neither it or her beautiful shield were with her when she had woken up. If the blight bested her armed, how would she fight it now?

Naboris’s body suddenly lurched, angling upwards as it pushed itself up on its long, improbable legs, swaying for a few moments before taking a drunken step. She held her breath as the floor canted again, and it seemed like Naboris might just fall over onto its side for a long moment.

But then it took another step. And a third. It seemed it had found its equilibrium, and the Beast began to march its way out of the desert.  _ Where are you going, Naboris? Why now? _

The sparkle of Kara Kara Bazaar, and beyond it, Gerudo Town, came into view as Naboris marched onward. With each step the Beast took, sand and wind rose, creating a storm around the ancient machine. Thunder split the air and Urbosa looked forward. The Beast altered course to put it in line with Kara Kara Bazaar.

Oh. Oh no. 

She dropped through the top of the Beast and ended up at the main terminal on a platform in its center chamber. There is no way she was going to allow Naboris, with its mindless intention and electricity filled sandstorm, to just walk itself into the Bazaar and Gerudo Town. She was going to do  _ something.  _ She rested her hands on the terminal and willed the Beast to change its track. It stuttered to a stop, swaying again, before leaning hard to the left and staggering. There was a whine and Naboris jerked forward two or three steps before she could pull it to the side again. 

There was no sense of an intelligence behind the Beast. It was just following orders, maybe. She fought with it until Naboris had turned away and marched back in the direction it came from. She rested until she realized that it was just making a large circle, and was back on track to the settlements again.

She fought it off course again. And again. And again.

Eventually, Naboris made large laps in the desert. Not a danger (not yet) but never stopping. She didn't need to sleep anymore, and it got easier to keep it on course. She didn't need to attend the terminal all the time. 

The huge machine with its attendant storm did not go unnoticed. 

_ Zelda is uncharacteristically quiet and shaken when Link brings her back from Kara Kara Bazaar. He is almost always quiet, but there is a set to his jaw as he sees her off at the front gate of Gerudo Town. He stands at the gate until he is satisfied the guards have her well in hand. _

_ Link catches up with Urbosa later that night, slipping into town in a disguise she provided and waiting for her in her chambers. Perhaps he is a little too good at his job, if he evaded her personal guard. He drops his veil immediately. _

_ “She nearly got herself killed this time.” _

_ His hand goes over his mouth and he closes his eyes. “She didn’t see me, and they didn’t see me, and that’s the only reason I got to bring her home. _

_ “She hates me, but she looks up to you. Please, please talk to her. I don’t know what else to do and I can’t have her die on my watch because she doesn’t like the idea of me.” _

Every once in a while, the weapon that sat between the humps on Naboris’s back would charge up, and sometimes it would fire. It took her awhile to realize it only charged when a target was detected, and she started looking when she heard the high pitched whine of the weapon revving up. Usually, it was just someone curious who wandered too close to see the beast in its eternal storm of sand and lightning. Lately, though, it seemed as though someone was teasing the beast, letting that weapon charge and then going out of range before slipping back again. Sometimes this would happen three or four times in a row before whoever was baiting the beast would vanish abruptly.

She spent a week seated below that weapon, waiting to see who was so bold as to flirt with the corrupted beast. She finally saw Vah Naboris’s target land on a large stone outcropping, outlining its tormentor as it passed close by. Probably Hylian, based solely on height, clad head to neck in some black, form fitting garment. Whoever it was, studied the beast as it passed, rubbing their chin with a hand. Just as the tone of the weapon changed, indicating it was about to fire, the figure vanished in a glow of blue light.

Sheikah relic blue light. She furrowed her brow. Naboris used to glow with that same light. So did that slate that Zelda constantly had in her hands, before. 

What did it mean?

She started to spend a lot more time under that weapon, looking for this figure to re-appear. She didn’t wait long, though it took her awhile to realize that she was seeing one person dressed in a wild array of different outfits. The figure showed up once dressed as a Gerudo vai, and then in voe armor, and once or twice more all in black.

And then, one fine day, they showed up to stare at Naboris in a bright blue tunic, an oversized frostblade strapped to their back and she knew who she was looking at, though it was clearly impossible.

It was Link’s clothing, at least, Zelda had made him that tunic when she made the rest of the Champions their blue favors. If she squinted, she could almost make out the embroidered Master Sword motif on the front. Then the targeting lights found him, and he darted off and out of range. He didn’t come back that day.

_ How? How was he back? _

She decided that it didn’t matter. If he was back, there was hope. She just had to hold onto Naboris with what she could until he figured out what he was doing. 

_ “So, tell me, Link. It seems you two have found some common ground finally?” _

_ Once again, he drops his guard slightly, shifting his feet, and the ghost of a smile flirts with his lips. “Yes. Yes, she opened up a conversation after the Yiga Clan thing. I think we understand each other better.” _

_ She squints at him a little. “You understand each other?” _

_ He is back to being regimented, though the flicker in his eyes now is more of a warm campfire than a storm. “Yes, Lady Urbosa. Is there anything else?” _

_ She had just nodded him off then. She thinks now she should have pushed that question. _

When he finally came back, it was with a sand seal, following the lead of a Gerudo girl, both of them charging to the Beast under a bubble that had to be from the Thunder Helm. Naboris threw a charge at them, landing a direct strike, but the bubble held and they surged forward, before staking out a spot in the center of Vah Naboris’s orbit. Bomb arrows flew out, three at a time, systematically hitting the Beast’s feet, breaking its connection to the ground. When all four were extinguished, the beast crashed to the ground again, folding its legs under its body, coming to rest just long enough for him to sprint out from under that bubble, racing for the Beast’s ramp, the blue of his Champion’s tunic standing out against the sand. Is that Revali’s bow on his back now?  _ How is he packing Revali’s bow? _ He darted up the ramp as the Beast slowly rose and resumed its slow laps. 

He held the Sheikah Slate to the terminal at the top of the ramp, and activated it. The slate that Zelda carried with her all the time. It had to be the same, there was only one, wasn’t there? Revali’s bow and the Sheikah Slate. She wished she could talk to him over drinks. A medallion on the floor lit up in that Sheikah blue, and Urbosa couldn’t contain herself anymore.

“You sure know how to keep a woman waiting.”

His eyes widened, and he swung his head, looking for the source, alarmed. He should have smiled, he should have even had a quip back for her.

He didn’t seem to recognize her voice at all. She wondered if he is the same young man she knew a hundred years ago. He looked mostly the same. There’s a horrible scar on the left side of his face, but those blue eyes that always ran deeper than he’d ever let on are the same. Even if he was the same being, maybe he isn’t the same person, she realized. Not after being dead a hundred years. Yet, here he is, trying to rectify what went wrong a century earlier anyway. Something of the Link she knew survives, somehow. 

She helped him find the guidance stone that would guide him through the workings of the Beast, restored power to the terminals, and when the blight showed up, as fast and unpredictable as she remembered it, he listened to her advice on beating it and it fell under a ridiculous collection of weapons he apparently had scavenged along the way. 

The Sheikah Slate and Revali’s bow, but where was his sword? She wondered if this version of Link would want to talk to her over drinks.

He dragged himself back up the platform to the terminal, and placed the slate against the console and reactivated Vah Naboris, now cleared of its corruption. He tipped his face to the ceiling, eyes closed, taking a moment, and Urbosa could no longer hide from him. She called his name and appeared before him. He did not seem surprised. He was more reserved than she recalled and she wondered what he had to go through to get here. Her heart broke, a little more.

There was much she wanted to say, and little time to say it.

She thanked him for setting her and Naboris free from their fates. She reminded him that they could both finish what they had started a hundred years before. 

She had been able to call lightning to her, when she was alive. It was a gift that was no longer of use to her, so she gave it to him.  _ Urbosa’s Fury _ , they had called it. He would make good use of it now. 

He tried out her Fury with a snap of his fingers and lightning crashed around him. He marveled, looking at his hands and golden light sparkled about him to sweep him away. He looked to her one more time and maybe,  _ maybe _ , there was a flicker of recognition.

But she wasn’t done yet. She told him she knew how he and Zelda had suffered over what had happened.  _ If only she could take that away. _ There was no one to blame. It was just how things had to be.

“Please. Make it clear so she understands that. Tell her to shed any worries,” Urbosa heard her voice waver. “Let her know, I couldn’t be more proud of her. You take good care of the princess.”

Then he was gone and she was alone in her Beast once again.

Truly alone, no malice left to watch her as she took full control of Vah Naboris after so much time, and marched the machine up to a bluff overlooking Hyrule Field. The castle sat on the horizon, with those five columns that had erupted from the ground that awful day to temporarily corral most of the Calamity  _ (and Zelda) _ . Purple-black smoke swirled around the towers and parapets, and even from this distance there are flashes of that malignant pink. There was a beam of red light aimed at the sanctum, and it seemed to originate somewhere in Hebra. Perhaps Vah Medoh has been tamed as well.

She took this in from atop the head of her Beast, and commanded it to a crouch, taking direct aim at the sanctum of Hyrule Castle. There was a great weapon in the head of Vah Naboris, one even more powerful than the one in its humps. It wasn’t time for that yet, so she aimed the targeting light opposite Vah Medoh. Soon there was a second beam of red light pinned to the castle. She hoped the Calamity inside knew. She hoped that Zelda knew. 

Vah Naboris took her name from the Great Sage Nabooru, thought Urbosa. Nabooru once assisted another hero in defeating another version of the Calamity. She stared at the castle, ready to play her role. It was just a matter of time. 

_ Soon, little bird. Soon. _

  
  



End file.
